Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
Friday, March 25, 2005, Washington Post

For the Birds . . . and the Nats?

My neighbor Isaac Barrow is 12 and a big baseball fan. He has rooted for the Orioles his entire life. Now, he's excited about the Nationals coming to Washington.

So the other day I asked Isaac, "Who are you going to root for, the Nationals or the Orioles?"

Isaac thought for a moment. "Both," he said.

I bet lots of kids are like Isaac. Just because Washington is getting a major league team doesn't mean that you have to throw your favorite Orioles hat away or stop rooting for the Birds of Baltimore. Besides, the Orioles are in the American League, while the Nationals are in the National League.

So for all you kids who are still Baltimore fans, let's take a look at this year's Orioles.

The big news is that the team has acquired super slugger Sammy Sosa. The big question is whether Sammy is still the same guy who averaged nearly 60 home runs a season for the Chicago Cubs from 1998 to 2002. Sammy probably won't be that good with the O's. After all, he's 36 now -- pretty old for a baseball player. But if he stays healthy and hits 35 home runs this season, he will give the Orioles another big bat in the middle of the lineup.

The Orioles' lineup is stacked. The Birds have six players who could hit 30 or more home runs this season: Sosa (35 homers last year), Miguel Tejada (34), Melvin Mora (27), Javy Lopez (23), Jay Gibbons (10 -- he was injured) and Rafael Palmeiro (23). With Brian Roberts getting on base in front of these guys, the Orioles should score a ton of runs.

The Orioles will go only as far as their starting pitching takes them. Sidney Ponson, who was jailed in Aruba this winter for fighting, better grow up and become the ace that the Orioles need him to be. Rodrigo Lopez is a solid starter, and young pitchers Erik Bedard, Daniel Cabrera and Matt Riley have a world of talent. They have to pitch well for the Orioles to compete in the tough American League East Division with the New York Yankees and the world champion Boston Red Sox (doesn't that sound nice?).

If the starters pitch well enough to get to the last inning or two, the Orioles can give the ball to star reliever B.J. Ryan. He'll be the team's closer. Ryan was terrific last year, striking out 122 batters in 87 innings.

My guess is that the Orioles will be fun to watch and will improve a bit from last year's record of 78 wins and 84 losses. But the Birds don't have enough pitching to make the playoffs.

And what happens if Sammy gets hurt, the pitching stinks and the whole season goes down the tubes? Well, you can always root for the Nationals.